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THE HEART OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




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THE HEART 



OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



WAYNE WHIPPLE 



AUTHOR OF 



The Story-Life of Lincoln, The Lincoln 

Story-Calendar, and The Little 

Life of Lincoln 



THE BIDDLE press 
PHILADELPHIA 

1909 



■Z 



LIBRARY of C0!«3RtSS 
Two Copies Recerved 

fbB 2 1909 

irt Copyrlfc-nt Entry ^ 
CL/\8S Ol_ XXCi No. 



Llrrculnlant- 



Copyright, 1909, by 
Wayne Whipple 



THE HEART OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 



THE MOTHER-HEART 

A hundred years ago a little heart be- 
gan to beat in a log hovel in the woods 
of Kentucky — a heart that was destined 
to swell with the hopes and throb with 
the griefs of the greatest nation on 
earth. 

But its mother never *'knew." It is 
doubtful if Nancy Hanks Lincoln ever 
raised her eyes in hope — as many a 
mother does hope against hope — that 
her son might become the first man in 
the neighborhood or nation. There 
seemed to be nothing ahead, in the poor, 
hard lot of her baby boy for Nancy 
Lincoln to ponder in her heart. She 
would have been full content for him to 
grow up kind to his father and mother 
and sister, and good to their back- 
woods neighbors, so few and far be- 
tween. The little boy's father was a 
tough, hearty, well-meaning, restless, 
7 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

shiftless, thriftless man whom she had 
taught, after they were married, to 
scrawl his own name. 

In their crude, primitive way, 
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were re- 
ligious. Both believed in the heart 
life. They heard it spoken of at camp- 
meeting as ''experimental religion." 
Either would have been proud to 
have their son grow to be a local ex- 
horter or a pioneer preacher. What- 
ever else Abraham Lincoln lacked in 
his early life, he had true heart culture. 
His mother, in her humility, builded far 
better than she knew — a palace instead 
of a cabin — while she was teaching lit- 
tle Abe to be good, and kind, and true. 
She knew it not, but she gave her child 
the master-key to the grandest life of 
experimental religion ever lived by mor- 
tal man. No wonder the grateful son 
held such a mother in sacred and lov- 
ing memory, exclaiming fervently: 

"All I am or hope to be I owe to my 
sainted mother!" 

8 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 



THE HEART IN THE HOME 
Even the dull and barren days of 
Lincoln's childhood radiate with the 
warmth of his heart. He was happy 
with his sister, two years older, and 
she was always proud of her brother. 
Their mother sometimes read to them, 
at dusk, from the Bible, 'The Pilgrim's 
Progress," and others of the very few 
books they had in those pioneer days. 
Little Abe, only five or six years old, 
would work hard and long to bring 
home spicewood bushes to make a pleas- 
ant odor and a brighter firelight while 
his mother read to them. The sweet- 
ness and light of those early memories 
remained with Lincoln always. 

Nicolay and Hay, his secretaries and 
biographers, mention a significant lit- 
tle story which they give in Lincoln's 
own words. When asked if he could 
remember anything of the War of 1812, 
he replied : 

9 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

''Nothing but this. I had been 
fishing one day and caught a 
Httle fish which I was taking 
home. I met a soldier on the 
road, and, having been always 
told at home that we must be good 
to the soldiers, I gave him my 
fish." 

When Abraham was nine he lost his 
mother. She was smitten with a strange 
and terrible disease which attacked the 
early settlers, and which they called 
''the milk-sick," as it seized the cattle 
also. Nancy Lincoln knew she was 
doomed to die. She called Sarah and 
Abraham to her bedside, and made them 
promise to be good to each other and 
take care of their poor father. It was 
a great grief to the little boy that his 
blessed mother had to be buried "with- 
out benefit of clergy." Years often 
passed without the pioneers even see- 
ing a minister. It is told that the first 
letter little Abraham ever wrote was 
to beseech good Parson Elkin, who had 
known his mother in "old Kentucky," 
10 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

to come and preach a sermon over her 
grassy mound in the edge of the clear- 
ing. This the kind old man did the fol- 
lowing summer. 

Dennis Hanks, an older cousin, who 
had come to live in their desolate 
cabin, used to say of Lincoln: ''Abe's 
kindliness, humor, love of humanity, 
hatred of slavery, all came from his 
mother. I am free to say Abe was a 
'mother's boy'." 

Thomas Lincoln was lonely, restless 
and moody. All that two children of 
nine and eleven could do, Abraham and 
Sarah did to cheer and comfort their 
forlorn father. But he disappeared one 
day and, after several weeks' absence, he 
returned, bringing them a stepmother 
with three children of her own. The 
boy soon learned to love his new mother, 
and she at once saw that "Abe was no 
common boy." Long afterwards, the 
second Mrs. Lincoln said to W. H. Hern- 
don, one of Lincoln's biographers: 
"I can say what scarcely one 
11 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

mother in a thousand can say, 
Abe never gave me a cross word 
or look, and never refused, in fact 
or appearance, to do anything I 
asked him. I had a son John, who 
was raised with Abe. Both were 
good boys, but I must say, both 
being now dead, that Abe was 
the best boy I ever saw or expect 
to see." 

Mrs. Lincoln had good reason to 
speak in the highest praise of her step- 
son's devotion. He never ceased to be 
grateful for her sympathy and kind- 
ness to him when a boy, encouraging 
him in his reading, and persuading his 
father to let the boy go to school a 
few weeks now and then. While he 
was a struggling lawyer, almost in mid- 
dle life, he devoted his first five-hun- 
dred-dollar fee to the purchase of land 
to make his stepmother more comfort- 
able in her old age. A legal friend ad- 
vised him to provide the old woman 
with a mere life-interest, but he indig- 
nantly replied : 

12 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

'*I shall do no such thing. It 
is a poor return, at best, for all 
the good woman's devotion and 
fidelity to me, and there is not go- 
ing to be any half-way business 
about it V 

Abraham's father took him out of 
school, whenever he had been allowed 
to go at all, on the slightest pretexts. 
Strong as the lad was, and work as 
hard as he might, he could never earn 
more than twenty-five or thirty cents 
a day. This meager pay his father al- 
ways took and kept. Most youths would 
have left home in disgust. 

But Abraham Lincoln stood by, even 
after his sister died and there was no 
one left of his own family but his 
father. He made thirty dollars peddling 
''notions" on the way from Indiana to 
Illinois. He seems to have given that 
money to his father, though he was 
past twenty-one, for, when he started 
out for himself in life, the first thing he 
did was to split rails for a suit of jeans, 

13 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

paying four hundred rails per yard! 
He did not leave his father's family un- 
til he had helped build their first cabin 
in Illinois, cleared and plowed fifteen 
acres around it, and fenced it all in with 
the historic black-walnut rails that, 
thirty years later, became the wonder 
of the world. 

After Lincoln had served his term in 
Congress, his friend, W. G. Greene 
called on Thomas Lincoln in his log hut 
m Coles County. Even then the father 
had not forgiven his son for his studious 
habits. He said to Greene: 

"I s'pose Abe's still a-foolin' his- 
self with eddication. I tried to 
stop it, but he's got that fool idee 
in his head an it can't be got out. 
Now I hamt got no eddication, 
but I git along better than if I 
had." 

In 1851 Abraham Lincoln heard that 
his father was very ill. Legal engage- 
ments prevented his going to Coles 
County. But he wrote to his step- 
brother : 

14 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

"I sincerely hope father may 
recover his health; but at all 
events, tell him to remember to 
call upon, and confide in our great 
and merciful Maker, who will not 
turn away from him in any ex- 
tremity. He notes the fall of the 
sparrow, and numbers the hairs 
of our heads, and He will not for- 
get the dying man who puts his 
trust in Him." 

This was Abraham's last message to 
the father, who had treated him with 
harsh injustice while lenient and par- 
tial to his stepchildren. 

After his father died, Abraham had 
to protect his stepmother against the 
impracticable schemes of her own son, 
who wanted to sell her land, including 
the quarter-section Lincoln had given 
her, in order to move to Missouri. The 
letters Abraham wrote to his step- 
brother at this time were models of 
masterful kindness. 

The last time Lincoln saw his step- 
mother was just before he left for 
15 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

Washington to become President. He 
had to travel across the prairie coun- 
try, in February, in an open buggy, 
running a real risk of his life in ford- 
ing a swollen river. Lamon thus de- 
scribes, in part, their final interview : 

"The meeting between him and 
the old lady was of a most affec- 
tionate and tender character. 
She fondled him as her own 'Abe,' 
and he her as his own mother. 
Their parting was very touching. 
She embraced him with deep emo- 
tion, and said she was sure she 
would never behold him again, 
for she felt that his enemies would 
assassinate him. He replied 
cheerfully, *No, no, mother; they 
would not do that. Trust in the 
Lord and all will be well; we will 
see each other again'." 

But they never did. 



THE HELPER OF THE HELPLESS 

From a child Abraham Lincoln was 
ever the champion of the helpless. His 

16 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

first ''composition" in school was 
against cruelty to animals. Many sto- 
ries are told of his defending the de- 
fenceless. One day, on finding some 
boys using a shingle in putting live 
coals on a terrapin's back, angry tears 
came into his eyes, and he snatched the 
shingle from the ringleader's hands. 
With it he dashed the hot coals from 
the turtle's back and ''preached against 
such cruelty, claiming that an ant's, 
life is as sweet to it as ours is to us." 

Late one cold night Abe and some 
companions found a man they knew ly- 
ing drunk in a freezing mud-puddle 
beside the road. The others said, "He 
has made his bed, now let him lie in it !" 
But to Abe this seemed monstrous. The 
man was large and heavy, but the 
youth carried the apparently lifeless 
body eighty rods to a deserted cabin, 
where he made a fire and warmed and 
nursed the man back to himself. 

Not long after this, while the family 
were moving to Illinois, they found, af- 
17 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

ter their heavy wagon, drawn by two 
yoke of oxen, had crossed an ice-filled 
stream, that they had left a little dog 
on the other side. It was late; to turn 
back with their clumsy team was out 
of the question. The rest were in favor 
of going on and leaving "the little nui- 
sance" behind. But Abe could see the 
dog running up and down the opposite 
bank, yelping in distress. Long after- 
ward, referring to this incident, Lin- 
coln said: 

"I could not bear the idea of 
abandoning even a dog. Pulling 
off shoes and socks I waded across 
the stream, and triumphantly re- 
turned with the shivering animal 
under my arm. His frantic leaps 
of joy and other evidences of a 
dog's gratitude amply repaid me 
for all the exposure I had under- 
gone.'' 

After he had settled in New Salem, 
while captain in the Black Hawk War, 
he risked his life by stepping in be- 
tween the muskets of some soldiers 
18 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

and an old Indian they were about to 
shoot as a spy. With flashing eyes he 
dared the crowd, saying: ''Take it out 
of me, but you shan't touch this In- 
dian!" He did this in spite of the 
prevalent belief there that "the only 
good Indian is a dead Indian/' 

Lincoln was a knight errant in the 
cause of the lower orders of creation. 
Once, while riding along, on the Eighth 
Circuit of Illinois, he and his law com- 
panions laughed at the plight of a poor 
pig helplessly stuck in the mud, and 
squealing lustily. But the distress of 
the animal soon overcame his keen 
sense of the ludicrous, and in spite of 
the jeers of his comrades, he went back 
to the porker's rescue, excusing him- 
self by saying: "If that farmer lost 
his pig, his poor little children might 
have to go barefoot all winter." 

On another occasion his friends were 
annoyed and not a little amused to see 
him hitch his horse and catch two young 
birds fluttering on the ground in the 

19 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

edge of a grove, and go hunting from 
tree to tree until he found the nest 
from which the two fledglings had fal- 
len. An hour or so later, when he 
caught up with the friends again, they 
laughed at his childish waste of time. 

''Gentlemen," said he, ''you may 
laugh, but I couldn't have slept well 
to-night if I had not saved those birds. 
Their cries would have rung in my 
ears." 

Lincoln could not see suffering any- 
where without trying to relieve it. A 
Springfield woman used to tell of stand- 
ing at her mother's gate, sobbing, be- 
cause the hackman had failed to appear 
and take her and her trunk to the sta- 
tion for her first outing on a train. Mr. 
Lincoln came along just then and asked 
what was the matter. 

"Cheer up," said he, "and come along. 
We'll have to hurry!" He shouldered 
the trunk and strode away, while the 
little girl trotted after him, drying her 
eyes as she ran. He put the trunk and 
20 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

the girl on the train, told her to "have 
a good time," and kissed her good-bye. 

"It was just like him!'' exclaimed that 
little girl grown to womanhood. 

His relatives were all illiterate ne'er- 
do-wells, but instead of avoiding them 
on this account, he seemed to feel that 
they needed his sympathy and help the 
more. During the great debates with 
Douglas, Lincoln arrived at Charleston, 
Illinois, worn out with speaking and 
travel. It was stormy, and he needed 
the rest to fortify himself for the re- 
newal of the struggle on the morrow. 
He prepared to go out from the com- 
forts of the hotel to call on a relative 
of his stepmother's. His friends re- 
monstrated, but he seemed surprised at 
such a suggestion, exclaiming: 

''Why, Aunt's heart would be broken 
if I should leave town without going to 
see her!" 

And he set out and walked several 
miles across the muddy prairie in the 
rain. 

21 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

After his election to the Presidency 
an old woman, whom he called *'Aunt 
Sally," came from New Salem to say 
good-bye to "Abe*' before he "went to 
Washington to be President/' The 
President-elect was standing in the 
room placed at his disposal in the State 
Capitol, talking with two men of na- 
tional renown when the old woman en- 
tered, shy and embarrassed. He saw 
her at once and hurried across the room 
to meet his old friend. Taking both 
her hands in his, he led her to the seat 
of honor, and presented his distin- 
guished visitors to her, putting her 
quite at ease by saying as related in 
Miss Tarbell's "He Knew Lincoln" : 

"Gentlemen, this is a good old friend 
of mine. She can make the best flap- 
jacks you ever tasted, for she has baked 
them for me many a time." 

After quite a long stay Aunt Sally 

pulled out from her basket a huge pair 

of coarse, yarn socks she had knit for 

Mr. Lincoln. Taking the stockings by 

22 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

the toes he held one down each side of 
his gigantic feet, exclaiming : 

"She's got my latitude and longitude 
about right, hasn't she?" In words of 
tender appreciation he promised to wear 
those socks in the White House, and 
think of her as he did so. 

Great joker as Lincoln was, with his 
inordinate sense of humor, he was in- 
capable of winking behind a good old 
woman who had been kind to him. He 
never said or did things for mere polite- 
ness' sake. He had none of the veneer 
of society but possessed the true heart 
of oak. 

It was at New Salem that Lincoln 
earned the name of "Honest Abe." 
Through the kindness of his heart he 
seemed to endear himself to everybody 
in the village. People talk sometimes 
of Lincoln's religion. He knew his 
Bible and believed in prayer and praise. 
But his belief was not formal; it was 
the heart religion which is expressed 
by the "Ancient Mariner" : 
23 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

**He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast." 

It was a true index to his character, 
that when no one hired him to work he 
did not allow himself to be idle. While 
staying with one of the neighbors, 
among whom he was always welcome, 
he would rock the cradle, play with the 
children, joke with the young folks and 
tell his best stories to the aged. It was 
said of him, in practical paraphrase of 
the definition of "pure religion and un- 
defiled," he used to ''visit the father- 
less and widows in their affliction, and" 
— cliop their wood! 

One of Lincoln's law-partners once 
said of him: 

"Lincoln is a man of heart, aye, 
as gentle as a woman's and as ten- 
der — but he has a will as strong 
as iron." 

LINCOLN'S LOVE OF WOMEN 

"Did you ever write out a story 
in your mind?" Lincoln asked a 

24 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

friend. "I did when I was a little 
codger. One day a wagon with a 
lady and two girls and a man, 
broke down near us, and while 
they were fixing up, they cooked 
in our kitchen. The woman had 
books and read us stories, and they 
were the first of the kind I ever 
heard. I took a great fancy to one 
of the girls, and when they were 
gone I thought of her a great deal, 
and one day when I was sitting 
out in the sun by the house I wrote 

out a story in my mind I 

think that was the beginning of 
love with me.'' 

Abraham, when a lad, hanging 
around the schoolhouse one afternoon, 
when he was not permitted to attend, 
prompted Kate Roby, the ''pretty girl 
of the settlement," in spelling defied, 
by pointing to his eye when she was 
about to say "y-'* Lamon says "Abe 
was evidently half in love with her," 
but she married his friend, Allen Gen- 
try, son of the ''great man" of Gentry- 
ville." 

25 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

In 'The Early Life of Lincoln/' Miss 
Tarbell writes: 

- Lincoln's old friends in Indiana 
have left many tales of how he 
"went to see the girls," of how 
he brought in the biggest back- 
log and made the brightest fire; 
then of how the young people, sit- 
ting around it, watching the way 
the sparks flew, told their fort- 
unes. He helped pare apples, 
shell corn and crack nuts. He 
took the girls to meeting and to 
spelling school. 

Mrs. Josiah Crawford, wife of "Old 
Blue-Nose," for whom both Abraham 
and his sister worked as hired man and 
maid, used to say: 

"Abe was a sensitive lad, never 
coming where he was not wanted. 
He was tender and kind, like his 
sister. He took off his poor old 
hat when addressing a lady. After 
meals he lingered behind to gos- 
sip and joke with the women 
folks, and these pleasant stolen 
confidences were generally broken 

26 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

up with the exclamation: *Well, 
this won't buy the child a coat!' 
and the long-legged hired boy 
would stride away to join his mas- 
ter." 

But Lincoln's first true love was Ann 
Rutledge, the comely daughter of the 
keeper of Rutledge's Tavern, where he 
boarded, for a time, in New Salem. 
Abraham and Ann studied grammar to- 
gether, and the tall boarder soon lost 
his heart. Then he learned that she 
was engaged to marry an unworthy 
young man named McNamar, who had 
gone east, and had not even been heard 
of for some time. 

William 0. Stoddard, the well-known 
author, and only living private secretary 
to President Lincoln, has written touch- 
ingly of Lincoln's love affair. 

It is not known precisely when 
Ann Rutledge told her suitor that 
her heart was his, but early in 
1835 she permitted it to be under- 
stood that she would marry Abra- 
ham Lincoln as soon as his legal 

27 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

studies should be completed. That 
was a glorious summer for him; 
the brightest, sweetest, hopeful- 
lest he yet had known. It was 
the fairest time he was ever to 
see; for even now, as the golden 
days came and went, they brought 
increasing shadow on their wings. 
On the 25th of August, 1835, 
just before the summer died, Ann 
Rutledge passed away from earth 
— but she never faded from the 
heart of Abraham Lincoln, and 
the shadow of that great darkness 
never entirely lifted from him. 
It was then that he discovered, in 
a strange collection of verses, 
those lines of William Knox, ever 
afterward his favorite poem, be- 
ginning : 

'*0h why should the spirit of 
mortal be proud?" 

There were well-grounded fears 
that he might do himself some in- 
jury, and a watch was vigilantly 
kept. He had been, to that hour, 
a man of marvelous poise and self- 
control, but, when they came and 
told him she was dead, his heart 

28 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

and will, and even his brain itself 
gave way. He was frantic for a 
time, seeming even to lose the 
sense of his own identity, and all 
New Salem said ''Abe Lincoln's 
insane!" He piteously moaned 
and raved : 

''I never can be reconciled to 
have the snow, rain and storms 
beat upon her grave !" 

Too much has been made, by several 
of Lincoln's biographers, of his so-called 
love affair with Mary Owens. Years 
after the death of Miss Rutledge, Miss 
Owens came to visit her sister in New 
Salem. The sister announced her in- 
tention of making a match between 
Mary and Abe Lincoln. That of it- 
self was enough to prevent their car- 
ing for each other. Lincoln called on 
Miss Owens and wrote several letters, 
seeming to feel under obligation to 
marry the girl because of what her sis- 
ter had said. But Mary Owens was a 
girl of spirit, as well as good-looking 
and intelligent, and she cut the Gordian 
29 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

knot by refusing Lincoln outright. In 
his rehef from this ridiculous tangle, 
Lincoln wrote a confidential, but in- 
discreet letter to his friend, Mrs. 
Browning. This letter she afterward 
permitted to be published. This atro- 
cious breach of confidence caused Mr. 
Lincoln and others considerable annoy- 
ance in after years. 

*The course of true love never did run 
smooth" with Abraham Lincoln. While 
in partnership with his law friend. 
Major John T. Stuart, his partner's 
cousin, Mary Todd, came from Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, to live with her sister. 
Of course, the rising young attorney soon 
met the Kentucky belle. Miss Todd was 
well educated, bright and pretty, and 
had social savoir faire, which Lincoln 
so sadly lacked. He ardently admired 
her from their first meeting. He found 
her brilliant, witty and ambitious. She 
had boasted to her girl friends that she 
meant some day to be mistress of the 
White House. 

30 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

There was a serious misunderstand- 
ing". Lincoln was morbid, and Miss 
Todd was high-strung. Misapprehen- 
sions were unavoidable. Lincoln be- 
came melancholy, and his bosom friend, 
Speed, invited him to Kentucky, where 
he recovered, to a degree, his mental 
balance. On returning to Springfield 
he threw himself into politics. He pub- 
lished a humorous letter against the 
State Auditor, James Shields, a vain, 
pompous little Irishman, signing it 
''Rebecca of the Lost Townships.'' 
This was followed by another "Rebecca" 
letter, not written by Lincoln, but by 
Miss Mary Todd and a girl friend. 
Shields was furious and demanded the 
name of the writer. Lincoln told the 
editor to give his, Lincoln's, name only. 
Shields challenged him to a duel. Lin- 
coln chose ridiculous weapons and im- 
posed absurd conditions, which showed 
that, though Shields would have done 
his best to kill Lincoln, he would not 
willingly have harmed Shields. When 

31 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

the combatants were brought face to 
face, explanations became possible and 
the foolish duel was avoided. 

Miss Todd's heart must have softened 
toward the tall knight who had stood 
ready to risk his life for her sake, for 
they were married the following Nov- 
ember (1842). He was devoted and 
thoughtful and kind to her through 
more than twenty years of married life. 
Her devotion, thrift, and ambition must 
have done much to inspire and advance 
him in his wonderful career. Mrs. 
Lincoln once said: 

**Mr. Lincoln was the kindest man 
and most loving husband in the world." 

Whenever anything occurred that 
would gratify her amibition, his heart 
always turned to his ''little Mary." 
When he received the telegram an- 
nouncing his nomination as candidate 
for the Presidency, he explained, as he 
broke away from a crowd of congratu- 
lating fellow citizens: 

"There's a little woman down on 
32 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

Eighth street who will be glad to hear 
the news — you must excuse me until I 
inform her." 

The night of November 6, 1860, when 
Mr. Lincoln learned, about midnight, 
that he was elected President, he hur- 
ried home and burst into the room in 
which his wife lay asleep, exclaiming: 
''Mary! Mary! mary! We're Elected!" 



"GREAT-HEART" IN THE WHITE-HOUSE 

Abraham Lincoln went to Washington 
a martyr at heart. He lived each day 
as if it were his last on earth. He had 
much before him which he hoped to be 
able to do. He found chaos every- 
where — a panic of statecraft in the 
North, and an epidemic of anarchy in 
the South. The leading minds of the 
country seemed to have gone daft. 
They advocated the most hair-brained, 
foolhardy schemes. Seward, his great- 
est rival, now Secretary of State, actu- 
ally proposed that Lincoln keep his 
33 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

hands off the helm and let him, Seward, 
steer the Ship of State. Chase, McClel- 
lan, and, later, Stanton, each felt that 
he, and he alone, was divinely called 
to save the Union. They did not be- 
lieve in their chief. The party which 
elected Lincoln looked on with misgiv- 
ings. They felt that the people had 
been carried away by increasing en- 
thusiasm; and that *'the Rail-Splitter'' 
had been washed up into the White 
House by a tidal wave of popular frenzy, 
like a stranded sea monster, and left 
high and dry and out of his natural ele- 
ment. 

While Lincoln's subordinates insulted 
him by patronizing him, 

"He knew to bide his time." 

He replied to Seward with the same 
masterful tenderness that he had ad- 
dressed his stepbrother ten years ear- 
lier, when John Johnston proposed a 
scheme about as foolish and visionary 
as Seward's plan for getting up a war 
34 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

with England! Lincoln had practised 
ruling his own spirit and forgiving in 
advance, in his dealings with his father. 
He had learned lessons in self-repres- 
sion, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, while 
smarting under the sense of the injus- 
tice done him by his father, who called 
him lazy and a fool, as he lay beside his 
wooden shovel, trying to study in the 
flickering firelight — preparing himself, 
heart and soul, for these very crises in 
his own and his country's life. 

There was something superhuman in 
Lincoln's charity. No mortal man ever 
possessed more absolutely the love that 
**suffereth long and is kind; — beareth 
all things, believeth all things, hopeth 
all things, endureth all things." Those 
about him comprehended his character 
the more slowly because of his stories. 
These were so unexpected and strange 
that people failed to grasp their deep 
import. When self-appointed delega- 
tions came to protest against this or to 
urge that, the kindness of his heart al- 
35 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

ways rescued the situation with a story. 
Ah, those stories! The sympathy in 
them was exquisite. Instead of con- 
taining a hidden sting, they were full 
of balm for the smarts and wounds of 
his hearers. Men sometimes scoffed be- 
cause Lincoln laughed while telling 
them. But he did not laugh so much 
at his own stories as with his hearers 
from the pure pleasure of giving pleas- 
ure. If ever a face was illumined by 
the glowing heart behind it, it was 
Abraham Lincoln's. This was why 
women left his presence exclaiming: 

''They say 'Mr. Lincoln's an ugly 
man.' It is a wicked lie — I think he 
has the loveliest face I ever saw!" 
"Homely" may express it, but Lincoln 
was never "ugly." His face often 
shone "like the face of an angel," for 
his sympathy made him an angel of 
light to many a breaking heart. 

It was Lincoln's heart that prompted 
the Emancipation Proclamation long be- 
fore it was promulgated — but it was 
36 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

his head that held it safe until the ful- 
ness of the time was come. Then he 
did it with fear and trembling at first, 
but afterwards his heart rejoiced. 

The Gettysburg Address is warm 
with the great love of Lincoln's life. 
A new story illustrative of his homely, 
spontaneous sympathy is printed for the 
first time in The Lincoln Story-Calen- 
dar. It is of a modest old Quakeress, 
who fainted in front of the speaker's 
stand just before Lincoln arose to de- 
liver the immortal address. He saw 
that the crowd was pressing tighter 
around her, so he came to her rescue. 

''Here," he commanded, ''hand that 
lady up to me." He tenderly placed the 
unconscious woman in the rocking-chair 
that had been reserved for himself. 
When she began to revive, she found 
herself being fanned by the President 
of the United States, on a platform in 
the presence of thousands of people! 
This was too much for a shrinking old 
lady in plain garb. "I — feel — better 
37 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

now," she protested feebly. '*I want — 
to go — back there." 

''0, no indeed," laughed Mr. Lincoln 
kindly. "You are all right here. It was 
all we could do to pull you up out of 
that crowd, and we could never stick 
you down into it again !" 

It seems strange now that Stanton, 
of all men, was among the very first to 
appreciate the simple grandeur of 
the Gettysburg Address — Stanton, rude, 
sneering, caustic, contemptuous, ob- 
stinate Stanton — who took pleasure in 
insulting Lincoln when they first met, 
eight years earlier, in the great McCor- 
mick Reaper case ; Stanton, who had al- 
ways called Lincoln a gorilla, an im- 
becile, and a fool! — with many profane 
expletives. Mind could never have con- 
quered the obdurate soul of Secretary 
Stanton. It was Lincoln's heart alone 
that wrought this greatest miracle of 
his life. In spite of Stanton's atro- 
cious treatment of him. President Lin- 
coln recognized the sterling worth and 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

patriotism of his snarling enemy, and 
said that he was glad to bear Stanton's 
wrath for the good he could do the na- 
tion. People at home and abroad freely 
criticised the President for allowing his 
Secretary of War to oppose and stultify 
him in so many trivial ways. But, lit- 
tle by little, as a trainer breaks in a 
fractious horse, Lincoln tightened the 
curb, until one day, in utter kindness, 
yet with adamantine firmness, the 
President came to say, 
''Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done.'' 
And it was done. 

After that last Cabinet meeting on 

the fatal fourteenth of April (Good 

Friday), 1865, Stanton remarked, in 

devoted pride, to the Attorney-General, 

''Didn't our chief look grand today!" 

According to a trusted servant in the 
White House, Mr. Lincoln, on the last 
day of his life, spoke in the highest 
praise of General Robert E. Lee. Rob- 
ert Lincoln had just returned with 
Grant from the front, and had Lee's 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

photograph in his hand. The President 
looked at it long and tenderly, remark- 
ing to his son: 

''It is the face of a noble, brave man.'* 
Some time before this, he was heard 
to say of General "Stonewall" Jack- 
son: 

"He is a brave, Presbyterian soldier. 
If we, in the North, had such generals 
this war would not drag along so." 

He appreciated the Southern leaders, 
and had all charity and tenderness for 
the South. After he was gone a com- 
partment in a private cabinet was found 
crammed with threats of assassination. 
He never referred to these except to 
say that there was no use in taking pre- 
cautions or being afraid. 

"If they want to kill me," he re- 
marked, "they'll do it, somehow." 

He lived constantly in the spirit 
which breathed out its love of all man- 
kind on that first Good Friday, long ago, 
saying : 

40 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

* 'Forgive them, they know not what 
they do/' 

That very night the conquering chief 
became, in fact, what he had long been 
at heart — a martyr. The next morning, 
at twenty-two minutes after seven, 
when Lincoln's heart ceased to beat, it 
was Stanton — loyal, devoted, loving, 
heart-broken Stanton — who closed the 
dying eyes of Abraham Lincoln, and 
then turned away, his whole frame 
trembling with suppressed emotion, 
whispering tenderly: 

'*He is the man for the ages !" 

A HEART-BROKEN PEOPLE 

The world stood aghast and the 
American people were stricken with 
grief. Even the Southern leaders sud- 
denly realized that the South had lost 
its best friend in the North. As for the 
Northern people, they met on April 
19th (Patripts' Day), in their own 
places, in city and country, and 
41 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

"Wept with the passion of an 

angry grief," 
while the simple funeral services were 
being held in the White House. Twenty- 
five millions of men, women and chil- 
dren are estimated to have gathered 
all over the civilized world and sobbed 
out their sorrow over the death of the 
well-beloved President. Strong men, 
never known to weep over their own 
personal troubles and private griefs, 
broke down and cried like little children 
when they heard of the murder of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. But he did not become a 
multi-millionaire in hearts at a single 
bound. It was by no accidental com- 
bination of events that the whole 
world wept by Lincoln's bier. He be- 
gan by endearing himself to his own 
family, and his few backwoods rela- 
tions and neighbors. Then New Salem 
learned to love him, as it had never 
loved anyone else. So of Springfield, 
and the Eighth Circuit of Illinois. 
When the supporters and clacqueurs of 
42 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

Seward, Chase and Cameron came to 
the Chicago Convention they failed to 
comprehend Lincoln's strange popular- 
ity. They did not realize, in their per- 
plexity, that they were contending 
against the ''principalities and powers" 
of Lincoln's all-inclusive heart. They 
laughed at the "Rail-splitter,'' and 
sneered at his ''coarse, clumsy jokes.'* 
Then they accounted for what they 
could not comprehend by calling him 
"a man of the people." This was 
true, but only in the highest sense. Lin- 
coln was the man of heart — and 
the people recognized him as a 
man after their own hearts. That 
was why his popularity spread over the 
North like a prairie fire. It was the 
great wave of heart responding to 
heart that carried him to the White 
House. It was this that made him the 
object of such widespread love and loy- 
alty. A large part of the patriotism 
of the soldiers was their love for Abra- 
ham Lincoln. He seemed to be the per- 
43 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

sonification of their country, threatened 
and wronged. He meant more to the 
people than ''Uncle Sam" — he was 
"Father Abraham!" When President 
Lincoln reluctantly issued call after call 
for soldiers, and more and more soldiers, 
the people seemed never to tire of re- 
sponding: 

"We are coming, Father Abraham, 
Three hundred thousand more." 



The soldiers said among themselves: 
"He cares for us! he loves us!" and 
they cheerfully, gladly, even humor- 
ously — to be like him, — marched into 
the jaws of death for his dear sake. 
It was far different from the love Na- 
poleon inspired in his troopers, for their 
loyalty flagged and finally failed. It 
was Napoleon's selfish heartlessness 
that made him a colossal failure. It 
was Lincoln's self-giving heart which 
crowned his life with immortal success. 
From early boyhood he had lived his 
44 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

life a burning and shining illustration 
of his own words : 

''With malice toward none ; with charity 
for all." 



LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR "LITTLE TAD" 

Mrs. Lincoln and ''little Tad" re- 
mained behind in the White House 
while the others went on that sad and 
winding funeral journey to Springfield, 
Hlinois. Beside the long coffin of the 
President was the small casket of "lit- 
tle Willie," who had died during the 
first year of his presidency. Willie's 
illness became most alarming during a 
grand reception, one of the first which 
Mrs. Lincoln gave in the White House. 
He had taken cold, but the doctor said 
there was no danger, and advised her 
to proceed with the function. 

Elizabeth Keckley, a seamstress in 
the White House, tells the following sad 
story in her book, "Behind the Scenes" : 
45 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

During the evening Mrs. Lin- 
coln came up stairs several times, 
and stood by the bedside of the 
suffering boy. She loved him with 
a mother's heart, and her anxiety 
was great. The night passed 
slowly; morning came, and Willie 
was worse. He lingered a few 
days and died. God called the 
beautiful spirit home, and the 
house of joy was turned into the 
house of mourning. I was worn 
out with watching, and w^as not in 
the room when Willie died, but 
was immediately sent for. I as- 
sisted in washing and dressing 
him, and then laid him on the bed, 
when Mr. Lincoln came in. I 
never saw a man so bowed down 
with grief. He came to the bed, 
lifted the cover from the face of 
the child, gazed at it long and 
earnestly, murmuring : **My poor 
boy! He was too good for this 
earth. God has called him home. 
I know he is much better off in 
Heaven, but then we loved him so. 
It is hard — hard — to have him 
die!" 



46 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

Great sobs choked his utterance. 
He buried his head in his hands, 
and his tall frame was convulsed 
with emotion. I stood at the foot 
of the bed, my eyes full of tears, 
looking at the man in silent, awe- 
stricken wonder. His grief un- 
nerved him, and made him a weak, 
passive child. I did not dream 
that his rugged nature could be 
so moved; I shall never forget 
those solemn moments. There is 
a grandeur as well as a simplicity 
about the picture that will never 
fade. 

Mrs. Lincoln was inconsolable. 
In one of her paroxysms of grief, 
the President kindly bent over his 
wife, took her by the arm, and 
gently led her to a window. With 
a solemn, stately gesture, he 
pointed to the lunatic asylum, 
saying : 

"Mother, do you see that large, 
white building on the hill yonder? 
Try to control your grief, or it 
will drive you mad, and we may 
have to send you there." 

This gentle warning was no misap- 

47 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

prehension. Her girlish ambition to 
be mistress of the White House had 
been fulfilled — but with how many sor- 
rows! The President's mansion was 
a house of mourning nearly all the 
time the Lincolns lived in it. 

Mr. Lincoln seldom spoke of Willie. 
Robert was away at Harvard College, 
and at the front, as one of General 
Grant's aides. Thus the President's 
wealth of love was lavished on Tad, 
"the pet of the nation." The boy was 
passionately affectionate — his father's 
inseparable companion. A word from 
Mr. Lincoln would make him laugh 
gleefully or melt him to tears. In the 
solemn Cabinet meetings he played 
about, sometimes falling asleep on the 
floor or in his father's lap. He accom- 
panied the President to Fortress Mon- 
roe, and clung to his father's hand when 
Lincoln strode through the streets of 
fallen Richmond. While the President 
was making his last speech, from the 
northern portico of the White House, 

48 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

little Tad stood by, catching the leaves 
of his father's manuscript as they 
floated down to him. When they came 
too slowly to suit the boy, he demanded 
in a piping voice : 

"Papa-day, give me another paper'* 
(Tad's pet name for his father was 
"Papa-day"). The little fellow had a 
nervous impediment in his speech and 
strangers could not well understand 
him. But his father understood his 
afflicted boy — every word! No matter 
who was in conference with the Presi- 
dent, nor what grave matters might be 
discussed by Seward, Stanton or Sum- 
ner, — if little Tad spoke, his father's 
fond face bent tenderly over him. Sen- 
ators and secretaries were often an- 
noyed by Tad's interruptions. All these 
things combined to intensify Lincoln's 
yearning devotion to little Tad. This 
passionate tenderness was more than 
mere doting indulgence. 

As for the boy himself, he did not 
care for any other playmate. One of 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

Lincoln's life-guard has recorded the 
statement that the only times that 
President Lincoln ever seemed genu- 
inely happy were while they were romp- 
ing through the stately old rooms of the 
Executive Mansion together, both 
whooping like wild Indians, playing 
horse or carrying the boy pickaback, or 
holding him high on his shoulders 
where he had always been in the habit 
of carrying the boys, when Willie was 
playing too, — Willie on one shoulder 
and Tad on the other. At such times 
Tad's small cup of joy was brimful, and 
he could give no fuller expression to it 
than by chuckling and shouting: "0 
Papa-day ! — Papa-day !" 

Where Tad had been the night of 
Lincoln's assassination no one knew 
exactly, but Thomas Pendel, the faithful 
old doorkeeper at the White House, re- 
lates that the little boy came in at the 
basement door very late and clambered 
up the lower stairway with heartbroken 
cries of — 

50 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

"Tom Pen ! Tom Pen ! They've killed 
Papa-day! They've killed Papa-day!" 

:): « He 4s 4: * ♦ 

They brought Mrs. Lincoln home in 
a state of collapse. The only wonder 
is that the horrible scene of which she 
had been a witness did not bereave her 
utterly of her reason. During the gusts 
of grief to which she gave way in spite 
of herself, little Tad would look up at 
her in terror and cry out: 

"Don't cry so, Mamma, or you will 
break my heart!" 

Then the horror-stricken mother 
would clasp the child in a passionate 
embrace, and cover his little upturned 
face with kisses and tears, summoning 
all the resolution of which she was ca- 
pable, for the sake of her little boy. Be- 
tween the two, his mother and his little 
brother, poor Robert had need of all 
the manly tenderness of his nature, 
which was "like his father's," they said. 

The terrific strain was too great for 
the desolate little woman who had been 
51 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

widowed by the most hideous cruelty, 
and she lay for many weeks, utterly 
prostrated, unable to go and be present 
at the burial of her husband and Willie, 
— unable even to leave the White House 
to President Johnson and his large 
family. 

Poor little Tad was sad and lonely. 
He sorely missed his father. He would 
wander from room to room as if looking 
for some one. Many times a day he 
murmured : 

"0 Papa-day! where's my Papa-day? 
I'm tired of playing alone. I want to 
play 'together' again, a little while — 
just this once — please. Papa-day!" 

His awful loneliness seemed to haunt 
his dreams. The ever-watchful door- 
keeper, or one of the life-guard, would 
lie down beside the little fellow and try 
to soothe and comfort him through the 
troubled nights. One moment he 
seemed in his dreams to be romping 
again with his great playfellow, gurg- 
52 



The Heart of Abraham Lincoln 

ling and chuckling and crying out, '*0 
Papa-day ! Papa-day V* Then the sense 
of his great sorrow pervaded his slum- 
bers, and he would sob, "0 Papa-day! 
Where's Papa-day?" 

**Your papa's gone," whispered his 
companion brokenly, — "gone to Heav- 
en." 

Little Tad listened and opened his 
eyes. **Do you think Papa-day's happy- 
there?" he asked eagerly. 

"Yes, yes, I'm sure of it, Taddie, 
dear, your papa's happy now." 

"0, I'm glad, so glad!" sighed the 
little boy — "for Papa-day never was 
happy here." 



53 



FEB 



1903 



